The best thing for Ukraine is to force NATO, the US, and regional players out of the country, former US congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul said. Without foreign meddling in the civil war, Kiev will focus on the nation's economic collapse.

“Get the foreigners out of there [Ukraine], get the Europeans
out, the US out, get NATO out, and get the Russians out,”
Paul said at the International Students for Liberty Conference in
Washington on Friday. “There will be less of a civil war
going on there because they will have to worry about their debt.
This is an economic matter too. You have to realize that the
country is totally bankrupt.”

“I’m not pro-Putin, I’m not pro-Russia, but I’m
pro-facts,” Paul stressed when defending his stance.
“Crimea is not exactly a foreign country, according to the
Russians. But I’m neutral on that,” the former presidential
candidate stated.

Paul – a 79-year-old retired doctor who spent nearly three
decades in the US Congress representing the state of Texas –
reiterated his previous statements, noting that what happened in
Ukraine last year was a “coup” that was planned by
“NATO, EU” and western Ukrainians. “One thing for
sure that we do know, is we [US] had the conversations between
our State Department and our ambassador before the coup – who
will we put in place. And they planned part of the coup.”

When the uprising in Kiev in early 2014 led to the ousting of
then-President Viktor Yanukovych, Paul urged in an op-ed that the
US must “keep [its] hands off Ukraine and let them solve
their own problems.” Several US officials, including the US
State Department’s Assistant Secretary of State for European and
Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland, have been accused of meddling into Ukraine’s internal affairs.

Protests in central Kiev have since largely subsided, and Petro
Poroshenko, the country’s current leader, was democratically
elected in late May. However, this did not solve Ukraine’s
problems, as Poroshenko supported the so-called “anti-terrorist
operation” against the country’s eastern regions, which was
launched by the coup-imposed interim government.

Kiev sent regular forces and volunteer battalions to the Donetsk
and Lugansk regions earlier in April, after rebels there refused
to recognize the country’s new authorities. The dispute in the
Ukrainian regions in February 2014, along with the addition of
the new government’s controversial bills and a push for
“lustration” of the officials who served under Yanukovich – all
of which caused discontent and resistance in the southeast –
eventually triggered a full-blown conflict after the sending in
of troops.

Since then, militia forces have been pushed further east from the
areas they initially occupied, but have regained control of the
major cities of Donetsk and Lugansk, where the majority of the
population supported the anti-government movement. Hundreds of
civilians have been caught in crossfire. Officials of the two
self-proclaimed republics have claimed that Kiev troops,
including nationalist battalions, have deliberately been shelling
residential areas as retribution, while Kiev officials blame what
they call “Russian terrorists” for staging provocations.

The death toll in the Ukraine conflict has exceeded 5,300 people,
with over 12,000 injured, according to UN estimates.

Moscow has repeatedly called for the Ukrainian government to stop
its military operation, to begin inclusive nationwide dialogue
with the rebel regions, and to carry out a constitutional reform
that would ensure federalization of the country – something which
Poroshenko categorically rejects.

The latest breakthrough in the conflict is the Minsk ceasefire
agreement, which has offered some hope that the fighting may come
to an end. The deal was reached on Thursday, following marathon
overnight negotiations between Ukraine, France, Germany, and
Russia. It was also signed and later ratified by the Ukrainian
rebels. The document stipulated a ceasefire starting at 00:00 on
February 15.

The talks were part of a Franco-German initiative. President
Francois Hollande and Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Kiev and
Moscow before meeting the Russian and Ukrainian leaders at the
negotiating table in Minsk.

Russian President Vladimir Putin recently criticized NATO's involvement in the Ukrainian
conflict, claiming the Ukrainian army is essentially a “NATO
legion” which fails to “pursue the national interests of
Ukraine” and is interested in restricting Russia.

Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov blamed the US for pursuing steps that “only
promoted further aggravation” of the conflict. “Through
every step, as the crisis has developed, our American colleagues
and the EU under their influence have tried to escalate the
situation,” Lavrov said during a security conference in
Munich on Saturday.

Lavrov highlighted the EU's failure to engage Russia about
Ukraine signing an economic association agreement with the bloc,
Western involvement during the Maidan protests, and the failure
of the West to condemn Ukraine for calling its own citizens
'terrorists' and for supporting a coup which led to the toppling
of the democratically-elected president.

Russia’s envoy to NATO, Aleksandr Grushko, said on Thursday that
lethal weapons deliveries to Ukraine – a possibility being
considered by Washington – would be unacceptable and would potentially have
dangerous and unpredictable consequences.